MOSCOW AND LENINGRAD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 November 1941, Page 5

MOSCOW AND LENINGRAD

Stalin Says Nazi Plans Have Miscarried GRIM PROMISE OF WAR OF DESTRUCTION FORMATION OF NEW RUSSIAN ARMIES LONDON, November 6. M. Stalin, speaking in Moscow today, said that now that winter had set in, the Germans would fail to take Moscow and Leningrad, He was addressing the Moscow Soviet at a gathering held to commemorate the 24th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. The Germans, he said, had considered that they could finish the campaign in Russia in a month and a half, but their plans had miscarried. They had planned to finish the war in the West and had failed and their plans to finish it in the East had also failed to materialise. France had gone down from fear and the Germans had thought the same thing would happen to Britain and Russia, but they were mistaken. They had hoped that Russia would become disorganised and that disturbances would occur. On the contrary, the peasants and workers were resolutely supporting the Red Army and Navy, which had never been stronger than 'they were now. ' Russia, M. Stalin stated, had lost 350,000 killed, 378,000 missing and 1,020,000 wounded. The enemy had lost in killed, wounded and prisoners 4,500,000 men. “Hitler’s hordes,’’ M. Stalin continued, “are plundering our people. They have killed peaceful inhabitants, showing no mercy to women and children.’’ The toll taken of the enemy, he added, had not prevented him from throwing in fresh reserves in the hope of winning success before winter set in. Why, he asked, had the Germans called on the Finns, Rumanians, Hungarians, Italians, and other small peoples if they thought they could defeat Russia alone... The Germans never went into battle without a numerical superiority in tanks. Thirty new Russian divisions had been formed, M. Stalin stated. They gave proof of Russia’s military strength and of the formation of new armies which ultimately would be victorious. Hitler intended to exterminate the Russian people. The Germans wanted a war of destruction and they would get it. The task of the Russians was to destroy every German on their soil.